Tin Roofs, Mimosa Trees, and Merciless Chainsaws

The camper is going to have a tin roof. It's stronger than a metal skin made from aluminum sheathing and won't leak like a painted wood roof. The tin is located down on my farm and is currently the porch on the abandoned farm house the tornadoes and termites have pretty much made a meal of.

The mimosa tree had split into three large limbs growing off of one trunk. Decided to cut the main trunk with the notch and cut through. Did that and nothing happened. Tree didn't lean and fall. Seems the middle branch had grown into the tin roof by about three inches. Had to chip at it with the chainsaw, but the sparks let me know I was cutting tin.

Took a break, drank some water, and looked at the situation a bit refreshed. Decided to cut the far left limb first. This would put stress on the tree to pull to the right. As I was cutting up the left limb, I heard a loud CRACK! Dropping the chainsaw, I took off running because I had no idea which way the tree might fall. It fell the other way. Mom was watching and thought it was funny how fast I could run when a tree is falling and I'm not sure where it will land.

Had a brother-n-law killed by a falling tree he was cutting down with a chainsaw. He spent the last months of his life on machines and tubes before finally dying in a comatose state Thanksgiving week of 1980. He was in his mid-twenties with a wife and two small sons. The tree he was cutting split, fell, and took him and the chainsaw down a slope and into a small pond. He was trapped under water long enough to suffer severe brain damage.

Yeah, I think about the terrible day in the late summer of 1980 just about every time I pick up a chain saw. My dad nearly cut off his left hand with a chainsaw when the small limb and brush attached to it slapped backwards after being cut throwing the chainsaw back towards him at an angle. The chainsaw grazed across the top of his left hand he was holding the brush with. He bled terribly before applying a lot of pressure. I drove him to the hospital and it took a lot of stitches to close the chewed flesh. I got "kissed" by a chainsaw on my right leg a couple of years ago. The tree had fallen and I stepped back in such a way that the chainsaw swung on my wrist to the left and grazed my jeans. Nipped a bit of skin and ripped the jeans up. Shook me up, too. Yeah, I'll admit it. Shook me up pretty good. A chainsaw is the most unforgiving piece of equipment you can use.

Got the 15 year old Homelite Super 2 XL chainsaw up and running.

The primer bulb had disintergrated with age, so I rigged up a needleless syringe (for giving cats their liquid medication) with a small, stiff, narrow piece of plastic tubing from a can of carburetor cleaner spray. Stuck the tubing into the end of the syringe so it can pull in a few CCs of fuel from the gas tank to squirt into the primer hose unattached from the fuel cap. Attached the hose back on the cap and screwed the fuel cap back on snug. Half choke, ignition on, pull, pull, pull, and it cranks up. Burned off all the old gas still in the carburetor with a lot of smoke, but it runs great with fresh fuel.



The primer bulb on this one in the video is on the side. Mine is located right on top of the fuel cap. But, they both sound the same.

Also, had to take the old spark plug and using a tiny jeweler's file, scraped off all the dried gunk on the terminal end. A couple of minutes later it is shiny as if it was brand new, I reset the gap to .032" and put a little anti-sieze around the threads and put it back on the chainsaw firmly capped.

The cheapest primer bulb found on the 'Net was around $20 at Amazon (with shipping). I knew there had to be a cheaper way to solve this problem. Took off the fuel cap and looked at the primer tube and asked myself what exactly is going on with the primer bulb, attached tube, and the port in the carburetor anyway? How are they synced? Can there be a work around? YES!

Cut up the remainder of the tree limbs left by the tornado that passed by the house last April with the old Homelite to clear out any remaining old gas with fresh, treated gas. Got a little firepit in the backyard by the tiny work shed and sometimes beans are cooked on it. Camp beans are tasty.

Well, all there needs to be done now is tune the H and L on the CS 370 carburetor and all three chainsaws are running good as new. Thank you, God, for ICS schools back in the 1990s. That little course in small engine repair and the motorcycle repair course has saved me a lot of cash and trips back and forth to small engine shops.

It was a slow morning that turned into a really good afternoon.

Had to Buy a New Carburetor for the Toro -- $110

I am so grateful to God that I know how to install a carburetor on a small engine. The shop costs probably would have added another $75 at least. Will keep the old carburetor and kit it out now that I finally found a source with reliable parts. Doesn't hurt to have a spare carburetor around for a small engine anyway.

Poor Mom. Has a sore left foot.

Mom knocked her heavy wooden fold up tray on her foot yesterday. With the powerful blood thinners she takes, she swoll up and bruised very easily. Fortunately, she didn't break any bones in her fragile feet. So, no going out to my farm the next few days. I was really looking forward to it, too. Have a pile of brush to haul off and some cleaning up to do around the old place.

Small Engine Repair: How to Check a Solenoid Fuel Shut Off Valve on a Ko...

Easy method to check for a fuel solenoid problem.

Carburetor Blues --- Kit it or Buy it?

Well, I removed the Toro's carburetor today. Disassembled, it looked okay interior wise. Just a drop of varnish in the bottom of the float bowl. Plastic parts looked a bit yellowed from five years of gas passing through it. The inlet needle looked a bit worn, but a carburetor kit will have a new one as well as new springs, gaskets, and instructions.

Contacted a local lawn mower dealer by email concerning the Nikki carburetor but haven't heard anything back, so I'll call them tomorrow afternoon and ask them to check their email. Need the Toro up and running by the middle of February. If it's not, I'll rent a small tractor and mow my farm. It won't need cutting again till late March or early April anyway. After that, it will need mowing every three weeks to stay ahead of the broomstraw and briers.

I've got three major projects going on right now... Mom, the Nano camper, and the Toro get the miss out of there. The chainsaws only needed a good cleaning and their H and L fuel settings tweaked a bit. Got a 1996 Homelite chainsaw (16") I'm thinking of tearing down and rebuilding, too. Got to find the fuel cap with bulb first at a very reasonable price. Homelites are easy to rebuild.

If push comes to shove, I might have to do a top end valve job on the Toro. The intake valve might be gunked up or needs a good polishing. They get sooted up sometimes from years of use of this Ethanol 85 Octane crap gas. I'd need a gasket kit for that, too. If the valves are not seating correctly, I lose compression and extra air is sucked in and leans out the fuel mixture. Might cause a backfire through the intake if the fuel mix is a bit rich or the timing is off.

Busy Days Now and a Busier Month Planned for February

The riding mower still has a miss in the engine even with the tune up, new battery, and new fuel filter, so tomorrow I'm going to open the pilot screw a bit and enrich the fuel mixture. Thank goodness for Penn Foster's small engine course from 1991. Called ICS (International Correspondence School) back then. If that doesn't get the miss smoothed out, I'll have to take the carburetor off and re-kit it. The gaskets are five years old and this ethanol gas (E85)is tough on gaskets. Makes them dry out or swell and this interferes with gas proportions with the air intake. Even with the fuel treatments, it's still a good idea to know how to kit a carburetor.

Get the miss out of the engine and all it will need is the blades sharpened and the axles greased.

All the chainsaw needs is the fuel High and Low speed needles adjusted. Still lagging a bit when the engine is cold. Need to adjust the idle speed, too. I don't really like having the chain spinning it's deadly teeth around the blade when I'm holding it while pulling a vine or branch out of the way. Have had enough close calls with these unforgiving machines called chainsaws.

Have I forgotten the Nano camper? Nope. Was outside a little while ago praying to God for guidance in getting it built. Have the roof material picked out, the flooring material, and siding. Already have the wiring, gas line, and other safety items ready to go. Will start back in March to have it ready by late April for camping. I need the Nano camper, so it's going to get built.

Found a flow chart for diagnosing sick carburetors. Flow Chart for Sick Carburetors

Souped Up Garden Tiller Racing.

This looks like fun!!!!

Steady Working and Steady Progress

Spring got here early in 2012. Had to mow the yard a couple of weeks ago and trim the hedge. Taking my old chainsaw tomorrow and tearing it down, cleaning the carburetor, and tuning it up. Need to examine the pull cord and all the goes with chainsaw maintenance. My riding mower gets tuned up on Monday, if all works out well. There is a new miss in the engine, so I'm going through the fuel system first in the list of troubleshooting options. It's probably the fuel filter getting clogged up and it's time for new spark plugs anyway.

Mom and I are going down to my farm more often since the temperatures are warmer. Cleared out the overgrowth around the main gate and plan to put up a new gate in February with new posts. Run some more barbwire. There is so much work to do out there with fences to repair or replace and everything else that comes with owning property.

2012 is going to be one busy year for me.

How to Make a Shortwave Radio Antenna for Less Than $1.00

I own a couple of small short wave radios. When the weather is cloudy, can't even hear the stations out of Tennessee. Will be making this antenna tonight to improve signal strength.

My Poor Old 2005 Dell Bit the Dust Last Night

Well, the hard drive's ability to find C:\ is totally gone. The FAT's (file allocation table) is lost somewhere in the deep dark sectors. It's not registering at boot up, in other words. Tried several emergency boot up disks, but none helped. So ... time for a new hard drive.

Poor old Dell's hard drive crashed and burned last night.

This old hard drive in the Dell is at least seven years old and from my Penn Foster PC repair and maintenance classes, hard drives have a way of crashing and burning once they hit six years old. Glad I know how to replace them. Will set me back a couple of hundred to three hundred dollars because I'm upgrading to Windows 7 while I'm at it. Will take a little cash out of each paycheck for a few months and set it aside for a summer project.

Keeping both crashed hard drives and will experiment with data retrieval software someday. If you work on computers, it's good to know how to retrieve data from a blown hard drive. Might look good on a resume one day when I get done with caring for Mom and get back out into the real working world again. Actually, for a while, thinking of working two jobs to build up my savings again. I can spend money, but I can save it, too.

While I have the Dell in tear down, I can replace the broken CD ROM with a DVD burner that the Camo computer couldn't use because of it's mobo's age.

Got the New Glasses---back on line.

Crunched my old pair a couple of weeks ago. Literally. Needed an eye exam anyway, so took care of two situations at once.

This is going to be one busy week if the rain holds off. With the mild winter, planning on doing some work down on my farm to get ready for the heavy work that will start in February. The grass and weeds that usually don't start growing till late February are growing now. Had to mow the yards and trim the hedges last week, but that's life in the Deep South. One winter, it's freezing temperatures shutting down entire cities and the next winter, it's so warm, you are mowing your yard in the dead of it.

Good to be back.